A NATURAL HISTORY OF HARMON PLACE
It seems like only yesterday that Harmon Place was igneous rock, monocotyledons, and dinosaur dung. But as the millennia came and went, and the various conflagrations smoldered, the earth became rich in rubber, chrome and used car lots. The early Indians of the area held these nomadic herds of used cars sacred, and gave them ancient, ancestral names like Pontiac, Cherokee, and Comanche.
Then the white man came, and monumental names like Bill Boyer Ford and Don Peterson’s Downtown Chevytown towered over Harmon Place. Goodyear, Uniroyal, Firestone, and Anderson-Crane dealers lined both sides of the street like a four-block long patch of laid rubber. Harmon Place had become the automotive capitol of the Upper Midwest.
But as America moved to the suburbs, so did the car dealerships. Today, all that remains of the once mighty automotive empire are vacant display rooms, empty buildings with parking on the roof, and Walker Auto Supply.
-Keep Harmon Open: An Urban Homesteaders Journal by Brain R. Hammond
Published by Lowry Hill, Minneapolis 1981
